


Star Wars Fictober Fics

by starr234



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Darth Vader's A+ parenting, Father-Son Relationship, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, POV Luke Skywalker, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Siblings, Skywalker Family Feels, Star Wars Fictober, Starwarsfictober, luke skywalker has a bad day, luke skywalker is a big ol softie, occasional happy ending, twin feels, why darth vader can't have nice things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-08 01:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12244314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starr234/pseuds/starr234
Summary: Series of drabbles and one-shots for Star Wars Fictober





	1. Prompt: First

Luke and Leia had taken to calling each other little brother and little sis when they thought no one else was listening. They didn’t know which one of them was born first and probably never would, but that didn’t stop them from arguing about it whenever they had a chance. Han figured they were making up for lost time.

“There’s no way someone as short as you is older, little sis.”

“There’s no way I’m younger than someone without a drop of common sense, little brother.”

And then Leia would laugh and stand on her toes to ruffle Luke’s hair affectionately, and Luke would smile down at her and shrug, and for a moment the Jedi and the Princess would fall away to reveal the twin starbursts underneath.

They both knew that they would never know who was oldest and that it would never matter. They were both first-born and both last-born – two only children who were now greater than the sum of their parts.

And that, they both knew, was the only thing that really mattered.


	2. Prompt: First (v 2.0)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: First

As far as Darth Vader could tell, there were no holos of Luke Skywalker that pre-dated the footage from the Death Star’s security monitors. The vital records kept by Tatooine’s regional government were abysmal and the boy’s childhood home had been destroyed.

The few times Vader tried to imagine what Luke had been like as a child, he could only picture a young Anakin Skywalker – blonde, tanned, and with sand forever in his stick-straight hair. When he pictured Luke’s milestones – first smiles, first steps, first words – he knew he was only creating pictures cobbled together from stories his mother had told him about his own firsts.

His daydreams about young Anakin-as-Luke felt cheap and inadequate, and he tried not to dwell on them. They only served to remind him of the past that they had both been robbed of. Luke should have been raised in luxury on Naboo or in the security of his father’s star destroyer – not in a pale imitation of Anakin Skywalker’s childhood.

So instead of thinking about the firsts he had missed, Vader focused on the firsts still to come. He would be there when Luke built his first lightsaber. He would be there when Luke piloted his first TIE and he would be there when Luke led his first squadron into battle. He would see the first freeborn Skywalker take the throne from Palpatine, and he would be by his child’s side as the first Emperor Skywalker ruled the galaxy.

The future held so much promise for the two of them together. All Vader had to do was find the boy, and they could begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I have a tumblr: http://starr234.tumblr.com


	3. Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Island

The small squadron of troopers escorted Luke and his father up to a landing pad nestled among the trees, where a Lambda-class shuttle waited. As they reached the shuttle’s ramp, Vader waved the troops away with a terse “leave us” and steered Luke up the ramp with a hand that almost – but only almost – rested on his back.

Luke started towards the passenger compartment to the aft, but hesitated when Vader did not follow. He looked back at his father, who stood motionless while ramp sealed behind him with a hiss. Then:

“You may join me in the cockpit if you wish.”

Luke blinked once in surprise, then nodded. “Thank you.”

The cockpit was empty, and Luke realized they were the only ones on the shuttle. “You don’t have a flight crew?”

“I prefer to pilot myself at times.” Vader gestured towards the copilot’s seat. “Sit.”

Luke lowered himself into the leather seat as gracefully as he could with his hands bound and watched as his father moved slowly and meticulously through every check and pre-flight sequence, pausing occasionally to adjust an instrument or re-check a gauge. Finally, Vader opened a com channel and said, “Shuttle Atraxia, ready for departure. Transmitting code clearance.”

There was a burst of static, then a Core-accented voice replied “Shuttle Atraxia, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. You may proceed.”

Vader took the controls and the shuttle lifted off towards the dawn sky and the Death Star looming overhead. Luke knew he should be taking this time to prepare himself for what was coming. But he couldn’t stop staring at his father piloting the shuttle through the atmosphere. It was so like his childhood daydreams – and so unlike them. And it seemed like Vader was similarly distracted. He could sense his father’s presence skimming around him as lightly as Vader’s hands skimmed over the shuttle controls.

As the pale light of dawn bled away into the darkness of space, Vader slowed the shuttle to almost a standstill and they drifted slowly towards the Death Star. And then Luke realized – 

“You’re stalling.”

Vader made a non-committal noise and continued piloting at the pace of an over-burdened eopie.

Luke sat back in his seat and frowned. “Huh.” 

He was confident in his own resolve not to turn, but he knew his father didn’t share his confidence. Vader had seemed certain that Luke didn’t stand a chance against the Emperor. That being the case, and given how eager Vader had been for Luke to join him, he had expected Vader to deliver him to the Death Star immediately, not meander through low orbit like they were on a pleasure cruise.

“I thought you said you _had_ to obey the Emperor.”

“I do,” Vader said. “I have been commanded to bring you before him and I will. But he did not say I had to do so quickly.”

Luke laughed, a brief rush of air that expelled some of the tension from his body. But that tiny glimmer of humanity didn’t change the fact that the shuttle still continued inexorably on its course to the Death Star.

He had told himself he wouldn’t ask again. He had made his case for leaving and Vader had said no, just as he had done when their roles had been reversed on Bespin. Luke knew that he needed to focus on the trials that awaited him now, not on his father’s inability (or unwillingness) to break free of the Emperor’s hold.

But he had always been an optimist, and things were different now. Now it was only the two of them and all of the things unspoken between them, here in an island of solitude between the Rebels behind them and the Empire ahead of them.

“We could still leave,” he said softly. “This shuttle has a hyperdrive on it. We could go anywhere, just the two of us.”

Vader made a sound that might have been a sigh. “I have no choice, Luke. I told you, I must obey my master.”

“And you will. You can still bring me before the Emperor.” Luke looked over at his father and chanced a small smile. “Just not any time soon.”

Vader turned to face him and Luke could sense the incredulity behind his gaze. Finally, his father returned to the shuttle controls and shook his head with a soft laugh. When he did, everything in the shuttle felt lighter.

“You are,” he said, “so like your mother.”

And then it was Luke’s turn to stare incredulously, wondering what in the stars _that_ meant, until the stars stretched and the shuttle burst into hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey I have a tumblr http://starr234.tumblr.com


	4. Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an old one (like, incredibly old, from back when I thought first person POV was a great idea), but it fits today’s prompt too well to ignore. I’m still working on all of the ones I’ve skipped - my fictober may end up being a ficsemester, but I’m going to get them all done (it’s good to have goals!).
> 
> In Angels in America (Tony Kushner), Harper says “the world. Finite. Terribly, terribly…” and I think that probably inspired my use of the phrase “terribly finite” below. I was super into Angels in America for a long time and a lot of it is permanently embedded into my consciousness.

This is the first year I will experience true cold, literally and figuratively. A true winter, you could say. Hoth was freezing, constantly bright and crystallized. Even when I was numb, frozen, near death in the snow, I was struck by the beauty of it. It seemed like a natural place to see an apparition of Ben Kenobi, surrounded by such wonder. And Tatooine – well, of course there was no winter there. When I think of the nights I spent outside there thinking I was cold, I’m amazed at how much colder it can really be. And how much darker. When you live on a planet with two suns, even the hours just before dawn aren’t really that dark.

I’m in space now, on the Alliance medical frigate. They say that space is cold, and I suppose it is. It’s cold and it’s empty. Before, when I looked out the viewport, I saw stars. And stars, to me, signified adventure and possibility. Now, I don’t see the stars. I see the space between them. The emptiness. The nothing. And I realize that life is terribly finite, and I am terribly small, and terribly alone.

Leia is distant. She misses Han. And I understand. I miss him too. And I miss her. No one ever understood me like the two of them did. And to think, the one person that I think could understand me now is the one person I can’t go to. He’s the person that caused this cold and darkness. He’s my father. I’d like to think that this changes nothing, that I’m still my own person, but I know that’s not true. Everything is different. I’m not Luke Skywalker anymore, but I can’t be Luke Vader.

If I close my eyes, I can see a flame in the darkness. It’s distant and small, but it burns bright, promising warmth in its glow. I think…I think it’s my father. I tell myself the heat is false, that the expected fire will be cold and stark, but I don’t believe it. Besides, could it possibly be worse than the cold I feel here, surrounded by darkness, totally alone?

It’s going to be a long winter.


	5. Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars Fictober - Pain

Vader sensed it the second his shuttle exited hyperspace. The bounty hunters hadn’t lied – Luke was here.

And, more importantly, he was in pain.

The controls creaked under his steadily tightening grip. Reaching out to Luke through the Force failed – the boy was too agitated to really focus on Vader. And when he attempted to bolster Luke’s strength with his own, the boy’s presence flickered fitfully and tried to withdraw.

His son was in pain and he couldn’t possibly get there fast enough.

Finally, _finally_ , the shuttle touched down in the compound’s small courtyard. Vader was out of the cockpit before the engines had fully shut down, down the ramp before it had fully opened.

The bounty hunter who had contacted him – a Barabel with plate armor covering his exposed underbelly – waited at the bottom of the ramp. His tail twitched rhythmically and his yellow eyes flared in the bright lights of the courtyard, anticipation coming off of him in waves. He wanted his money. Vader wanted his son, _now_.

“Where is the boy?” Vader snapped as he strode past the bounty hunter. He could sense Luke somewhere close by, but whatever was happening had made his son’s presence scattered and diffuse, and he couldn’t pinpoint his exact location.

“This way, Lord Vader,” the bounty hunter rasped, catching up with Vader and passing by to lead him in the right direction. “The boy is subdued, as you’ll see.”

_Subdued._

“What do you mean?” Vader asked, his voice tight with barely controlled anger.

The Barabel pulled a small holoprojector from his belt and thumbed it on.

Vader stopped walking.

Luke was strapped to a scan grid, crying out weakly as his body writhed under the waves of electrical charges. His face was pale, his hair plastered to his forehead. 

For a moment, Vader couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even breathe.

Then: “How long?” he growled.

The bounty hunter paused, finally picking up on Vader’s rage. “He was brought in unconscious, and we’ve kept him on here since then. It’s a low-level charge, my lord. He shouldn’t be—“

Vader whirled away, his rage spiraling outward and away from him, seeking a target, seeking _something_ he could do to _stop_ this.

The lights in the courtyard blazed and then exploded as the power went off across the compound.

“Take me to him,” Vader ordered. “ _Now._ ”

*** 

The power was out.

There had been a power surge and for a moment Luke had thought they had finally tired of waiting for Vader and decided to kill him. But then the lights had gone out and the electricity washing over and through him had stopped and his restraints had released. Acting more on instinct than anything else, he’d thrown his hands up in time to push away from the scan grid and avoid cutting his face open on the loose wires and diodes, and instead had fallen to the floor in a heap.

After spending so long barely conscious on the scan grid, the absence of sensation was almost painful in and of itself. Luke’s arms and legs were tingling, and he was _cold_ —

Wait…

That wasn’t ordinary cold, it was…

He had to get away. He knew it. But he was so tired and it was so easy to just lie there on the floor and wait. Capture seemed inevitable at this point.

But he’d never been one for just lying around and waiting. Luke took a deep breath and tried to pull the Force to him. Closing his eyes, he gathered his strength and prepared to try to stand again.

And then the door to the cell flew open and he was lost. Vader stared down at him for a few long seconds from the doorway.

“What,” Vader finally snarled, “is the _meaning_ of this?”

From somewhere behind Vader, the leader of the small band of bounty hunters that had ambushed him when he’d stopped to refuel his X-wing said, “he should not be permanently damaged, my lord. It was a distraction, meant to keep him from escaping until—“

“A distraction?” Vader roared. He whirled and began advancing on the Barabel and the other bounty hunters gathered in the corridor.

Vader’s rage was choking him. Luke pushed himself to his hands and knees, knowing he had to get up, had to do something before it was too late.

“Wait,” he said, coughing as his voice dragged through his raw throat.

“Stay back, Luke,” Vader said without turning. His lightsaber blazed in front of him and tension radiated from his arms and shoulders.

“No – you shouldn’t hurt them.” Luke surged the rest of the way to his feet, stumbled slightly, and closed his fingers over Vader’s forearm. “Father. Please.”

Vader’s mask tilted down as he looked at Luke’s hand on his arm. For a long moment he didn’t speak, but Luke could feel the surge of indecision.

 _Please_ , he repeated.

Finally, _finally_ , Vader leveled his blade at the Barabel, who stood tall even while the rest of his band cowered behind him. “Consider yourselves fortunate that my _son_ is more forgiving than I am.”

Vader pulled his arm from Luke’s grasp, more gently than Luke would have expected. Extinguishing his blade and hooking it to his belt, he wrapped his arm around Luke’s waist and pulled him close to support his weight.

“Hey – stop!” Luke struggled to pull away, but Vader’s grip was unyielding. “I can walk just fine.”

“Hardly,” Vader said, and was that _sarcasm_ in his voice? “You are barely standing.”

“I’m _fine_ ,” Luke repeated. “I don’t need—“ 

_Heroics can wait until you have had food, rest and medical attention, my son._

_But—_

_Luke. I gave you their lives. Give me this._

Luke stilled at that and leaned heavily against his father’s arm. He _was_ tired…

Vader began walking, slower than usual so Luke could lean on him and still keep up. The band of bounty hunter’s relief at being left alive was palpable and Luke tried to shut it out. He was too tired to cope with anyone else’s emotions right now – anyone except Vader’s, whose still-simmering anger and fear wrapped around him until he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

What was _Vader_ so afraid of, anyway?

“My ship is waiting in orbit. You will see a medic as soon as we arrive.”

“I don’t want—“

“You do not have a choice.”

Luke closed his eyes and let himself be pulled along. He didn’t know how he had planned on finishing that sentence anyway. Didn’t want medical attention? Truth be told, the idea of spending a day sedated in a bacta tank was welcome right now. Didn’t want to go with Vader? He didn’t know if that was true anymore. At least, not true in a way that could be boiled down to one sentence.

“Lord Vader?”

The Barabel’s voice grated out from behind them. Luke hadn’t sensed him approaching and he jerked against the burn of a phantom electrical charge. Vader tightened his grip around Luke’s waist and stopped.

“We haven’t discussed payment.”

Oh no....

Vader’s grip around his waist tightened to the point of pain. “Payment?” he repeated, malice dripping from the word. Luke grimaced at the wave of nausea that accompanied it. “Your payment is being left _alive_ after nearly killing—“

“ _Nearly_ ,” the bounty hunter interjected. If he’d been more alert, Luke would have been impressed at his temerity. “Your instructions were _alive_ , not alive and unharmed. If you wanted him left alone, you should have said so – but you wouldn’t be holding him right now if you had.”

Vader spun to face the Barabel, dragging Luke with him. He stumbled, losing his footing in the quick movement, and Vader hauled him back upright. This was _ridiculous_. He was tired, scared, he hurt everywhere…

_They wouldn’t have been so desperate to keep me if you hadn’t put such an **astronomical** bounty on my head, you know._

Vader’s mask snapped downward sharply to stare at him. Luke shrugged weakly. It was true, and he knew his father knew that. Finally, Vader said “you will receive half of your payment now, and half after the boy has been cleared by a medic with no permanent damage. If you wish to continue use of all four of your limbs, I suggest you agree.”

The bounty hunter bowed, although there was no respect in it. “You are most generous, Lord Vader.”

Vader glared for another moment, then turned back towards his shuttle. Luke lost his footing again and Vader lifted him clear into the air, grasping him against his chest in a cradle hold. 

“I can walk,” Luke protested.

“This is faster,” Vader said in a tone that did not invite argument as he increased his pace. Luke grimaced. It was faster, and easier, and less jarring on his aching muscles – but it was embarrassing and he hated seeming so vulnerable.

Hated it, but still let his head droop against his father’s shoulder as his eyelids got heavier.

“Father?” he murmured.

“Yes, Luke?”

“Why did you let them live?”

“You asked me to.”

“It can’t be that easy, can it?” He’d meant it to sound cutting, but he was too tired and it came out as earnest as if he were straight off the farm.

Vader’s steps didn’t slow, but his grip on Luke softened somehow, even as the blanketing weight of his father’s presence wrapped around him more tightly. “Sometimes it can.”

He walked in silence for a moment, then, “why did you ask me to spare them?”

There were so many answers Luke could have given. 

_It’s not right._

_They didn’t deserve it._

_You can’t go around killing people just because they offend you._

But he finally settled on the one that felt the most true, the one that had weighed on his heart every time he lost someone, since his aunt and uncle, Ben, Biggs, Han, Leia, squad members, friends.

“I don’t want anyone else to suffer for me.

Vader made a sound that was almost a sigh. “You are naïve, child.”

“I know,” Luke said. Darkness was starting to creep in at the edge of his vision, but he wasn’t scared. “Can’t help it. It’s who I am.”

Vader was quiet for one, two, three long breaths. The last thing Luke heard before he drifted away was his father say, “I know.”

And Luke could tell that, under the mask, he was smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I have a tumblr: http://starr234.tumblr.com


End file.
